The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2016 would set the stage for the US to conduct a wider war against the Assad regime, pulling resources away from the fight against ISIS.

November 18, 2016

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and the committee's ranking member Eliot Engel listen to staffers as they confer during the committee's hearing on Iran. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin)

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Once again, war clouds are gathering over the Middle East. This week, the House of Representatives passed H.R.5732, also known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2016. Sponsored by Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), the bill was lobbied for in Washington by members of the so-called Syrian moderate opposition as well as by representatives of the White Helmets.

According to a statement issued in July by Engel and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), the bill would “impose new sanctions on supporters of Syria’s Assad Regime, encourage negotiations to end the crisis, and kick off investigations into the eventual prosecution of war criminals.”

Nor is that all. The bill also sets the stage for the implementation of so-called safe zones and a no-fly zone over Syria. It requires the administration to “submit to the appropriate congressional committee” a report that “assesses the potential effectiveness, risks and operational requirements of the establishment and maintenance of a no-fly zone over part of all of Syria.” Further, the bill calls for the administration to detail the “operational and legal requirements for US and coalition air power to establish a no-fly zone in Syria.”

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The bill, if passed, would set the stage for the United States to conduct a wider war against the Assad regime, pulling resources away from the fight against ISIS and directing US military force to further the agenda of Islamists who seek the overthrow of the secular Baathist regime in Damascus. Further, the bill’s sponsors seem willfully oblivious to the dangerous course the bill would set the US military on given the fact that Russian and Iranian troops are on the ground in Syria. Russia has also moved its aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, into the Mediterranean and has S300 and S400 missile-defense batteries in Syria, which it has pledged to use in defense of its client Assad.

The timing of the bill’s passage in the House should not been seen as coincidental. Ominously, the push to pass the Caesar Bill comes at the same time outside groups are hoping to capitalize on President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to kill the Iran nuclear deal. What little is known about Trump’s burgeoning national-security team indicates that the incoming administration will be focused on the alleged threat Iran poses to US interests in the region. In this, the administration can be confident that they will have the support not just of reflexive Republican hardliners who control both houses of Congress, but of incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, himself a prominent opponent of the Iran deal.

A shadowy advocacy group called the 45 Committee has begun running television ads hyping the Iran threat as well, urging viewers to call President Obama to support the Iran Sanctions Act Extension, which was also passed in the House this week. That bill, sponsored by Rep. Ed Royce, would extend US sanctions on Iran for another 10 years.

The passage of the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act, then, should be seen as part and parcel of a broader attempt by congressional and incoming administration hardliners (encouraged by the Likud and Sunni Gulf state lobbies inside the Beltway) to contain what they perceive as Iranian expansionist designs in the Middle East.

I welcome articles like this from James Carden, but I think we need to broaden the conversation. It should be obvious to everyone that neither Iran nor Syria is a military threat to the US. Then what is going on here? Is there method in the climate denying, fear of Iran, Putin bashing madness?
Two questions we should ask ourselves: Why is the US dollar ($US) the world’s reserve currency and what does it mean? And why are US sanctions such a powerful weapon?
Oil is the most important commodity in the world. Without it, you do not have a modern economy, and to buy it, you need $US. Thus as long as the world needs oil, and it is sold in $US, the world-wide demand for the $US gives it its value and prevents flight from it. Moreover, these dollars eventually come back into the US economy. For some people in the world this is a form of exploitation, but for US elites it’s a source of enormous power.
It might be possible that certain US elites, wishing to maintain a world dependent on oil and the $US, are willing to risk world war three and/or catastrophic climate change rather than accept any threat to there power, wealth, and privileges.
For example, in 1971 Nixon removed the $US from the link to gold. In 1973 he and Saudi Arabia agreed that oil would be sold in $US and profits invested in US capitol markets. In 1975 this system was expanded to include the rest of OPEC and it worked well for nearly three decades.
But in 2000 Saddam Hussein said he would begin the sale of oil in Euros. Since 2001 almost all of Iraq's oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food program were paid in euros. In 2003 Iraq was invaded.
In 2004 Iran started an independent oil market not tied to the $US. In 2006 the US, through the UN, intensified sanctions on Iran, and Iran and Syria signed a defense agreement.
In 2009 Qatar and Saudi Arabia proposed a pipeline through their countries and through Jordan, Syria and Turkey to serve Europe. Only Assad said no to this deal.
In 2011 Syria, Iran, and Iraq signed an agreement for a pipeline through their countries to serve Europe. This would strengthen Iran as oil would flow to Europe without crossing any US’s allies. Soon jihadists (ISIS), funded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, arrived in Syria.
ISIS in Syria smuggled Syrian oil across Turkey’s boarder and weapons arrived from Turkey to ISIS. Russia released satellite photos of oil smuggling and targeted an oil convoy. Afterward Turkey shot down a Russian jet.
Russia is the worlds second largest oil exporter. In 2008 it announced it wanted a Eurasian economic union with a non $US currency unit. China and Venezuela have encouraged moves away from the US dollar.
In 2013 the US began destabilizing Ukraine and in Feb 2014 the government fell and soon there was civil war. In March 2014 Russia annexed Crimea and the US, through the UN, imposed sanctions on Russia. In May 2014 Russia and China signed a major energy agreement. US engaged in a NATO buildup and non-stop Putin bashing.
In 2009 Qaddafi was named Chairman of the African Union. He proposed a single United African State with its own currency. In 2011 the US began a program to topple Qaddafi.
China is invested in South Sudan, where most of the oil is, the US is involved and there is war.
China is Iran’s biggest oil customer and trade partner. A special bank was created to ease China’s payments to Iran.
Oil was discovered in Somalia, possibly a major field, the US is involved in Somalia and there is a civil war.
And why are sanctions so important? Because to buy oil or do business with large corporations, it is impossible to do large dollar or Euro transactions without coming in contact with a US or Euro bank that can and will freeze your assets. The targeted country’s economy would barely survive. Iran sanctions were mitigated by Russia which helped Iran avoid US and Euro banks.
I don’t mean to suggest there is a conspiracy afoot but only that there may be other recent facts to discuss besides the public policy of neocons that ‘Assad must go,’ ‘Iran is making a bomb,’ and ‘Putin’s Russia wants to conquer the world.’

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Jeffrey Harrisonsays:

November 19, 2016 at 12:10 pm

the US is cruisin' for a bruisin'. We're not actually the global hegemon, we just wanna be. But, as Putin said, we shot down your aircraft over Vietnam; we can shoot down your aircraft over Syria. And I have no doubt but that he would do just that.

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George Hoffmansays:

November 18, 2016 at 10:42 pm

I also must note the Senate has recently passed a bill that requires women 18 years and older to register for the draft. But a similar bill in the House has yet to pass in that chamber. So the war hawks in the deep state are once again lining their ducks up in a roll for yet another disastrous war in the Greater Middle East since the volunteer armed forces was overwhelmed and hollowed out by the Global War on Terror since the 9/11 attacks. If this bill to bring back the draft does eventually pass in the House, and then the Senate and the House can reach a compromise, things will definitely heat up for another war. Despite all this hysteria for a new Cold War of which this Syrian reolution acts a a stalking horse for a larger war, war hawks must know Americans just don't have the stomach for yet another war since they have been able to go through the motions of a faux patriotism with a volunteer armed forces.